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Thursday, December 20

Giveaway closed!Thank you to those who commented and I'm happy to announce that the comment "Christmas Vacation comment....by Jen H :) on 'Tis The Season For Giving! {Goodnyou? Giveaway Day}" won the Goodnyou? Spa Bundle Pack!
The initially start to this post was written as... "I'm jumping on here quick like, because I only have a minute… "

That's where it ended, all she… me… wrote… 3 weeks ago….Goodnyou?

But before the mess of all things holly and jolly take over, I wanted to post the last Goodnyou? giveaway of the 2012 year…

As my Christmas present to you!

I'll make the entry easy, seeing as it is Christmas... just comment below, by telling me your favorite Christmas movie or one of your favorites {because if you're anything like me, there are too many to choose from…Elf… Home Alone… Charlie Brown… Christmas Shoes… Love Actually.. Grumpy Old Men... I digress… } tell me one of your favorite movies and I'll throw you into the drawing to win a Goodnyou? Spa Bundle pack of the scent/flavors of your choice.

Giveaway ends at 12:00 PM on day of winner announcement. Any entries after 12:00 PM on announcement day will be void. Although the sponsor has thoughtfully provided their product for our lil' old giveaway, thoughts and opinions on the product itself, are all mine, mine, mine.

Monday, December 17

There were mixed emotions going into Saturday's planned cookie party. Friday's Connecticut news did nothing less than stop us all in our own tracks.

A friend called Saturday morning to ask if I still had plans on following through with the get-together that day. I wasn't prepared for the flood of emotions that would come in my sheepish answer of 'yes'…. I hadn't expected guilt to be the biggest one.

I don't know if the guilt stemmed from the thought of canceling never crossed my mind….if the situation in Newtown only gave me more reason to dive deeper into all of my own surrounding good…. or because while I puttered around my own kitchen, Friday night, to distract me from the reporting news, another mother was collapsing in hers, from heart ache, because of it.

Somewhere in that day, I forgot about that guilt or it turned in to gratitude, I'm not quite sure.

All I really know is how I feel and though the Christmas preparations of getting gifts ready, packages sent, and cards stamped, has been busying for weeks now, the scurry of kids in my house, laughter of my mumma friends around my table, and declarations of 'not being able to have one more bite' made, I felt settled.

The roller coster has inched to the top, the momentary hover before the decline is now, and it's my most favorite part of the ride, the expectation and anticipation of what is to unfold.

And all I know how to do, when faced with the realities of life's unacceptable evils, is to slow myself down while also amping myself up, to be in tuned with my level of appreciating it all.

And the cookie decorating party, was a good way to start.
Happy Monday.

Tuesday, December 11

Last week you turned 10 years old. The fact that it's taken me this long to be able to sit down and write you this letter, only shows how much I've been avoiding the process of wrapping my head around the very fact, that you're 10.

It's harder for me to believe I've been lucky enough to have you call me "Mumma" for 10 full years.
It's even harder for me to accept that those 10 years have gone by so quickly.

I look back at myself at 19 and I can't help but think how clueless I was to this whole thing.
To be honest, I can't help but think how clueless I still am.

There is so much I want for you. More than you will ever know, more than I can comprehend myself…even though I may not understand it, my heart screams it and if there is one thing I'm certain of in this life, when your heart speaks, you not only listen, but pursue.

This year's going to be a big one for you, I can feel it. Many of your questions will be purposefully asked. I don't hesitate to tell you truths, my fear stems from you becoming aware of life's realities…. this is where, I'm afraid, innocents starts to be lost.

I'm not ready for that part of you growing up.
I'm not ready for any part of you growing up.
As much as I want to slow these days, I love the baby you were, I love the boy you are, and the man you will be.

Your heart is so kind and your soul so gentle.
I couldn't have been luckier to be chosen for you.
Life answered the biggest questions, I didn't even know I was asking.

It's not just that you're the one who made me a Mumma, Wesley, you're the one who consistently forges the path, teaching me how to be a better one.

And though there are promised stumbles for us along our journey, just like we started, we'll continue to figuring this whole thing out together.

Monday, December 3

Bath scrubs are my favorite go-to Holiday gifts. The ingredients are simple and natural, it also mixes up a lot, making it perfect to keep on hand this time of year as a 'grab-n-go' gift.

Typically, I make a scented salt scrub to give out around Christmas. I love the coarseness of salt scrub, it really gets in there and exfoliates that skin until it's smooth and silky.

This year, I'm going with a brown sugar scrub. It's finer than the salt and not as aggressive, but works just as lovely and smells like you could eat it… but, don't eat it… trust me.

I usually, throw some decorative fabric on the top of the mason jars I put the scrub in, but Pinterest convinced me I should use chalk paint to paint the lids and write with chalk on top of them this year.

Who am I to deny the persuasion of Pinterest?
But I digress… I pair these scrubs with Beanie Balm or something made in the kitchen. It makes a simple, cheap, and easy gift to not only give to those who would expect a gift from you this time of year, but those who wouldn't… like the post lady, your child's bus driver, or that one deli worker, who puts extra pickles on your steak & cheese, even when you've forgotten to order them yourself.

Once again, you'll have to bare with me on the measurements part of this recipe, but it's simple enough precision is not needed.

All I did was..

-Dump one bag of light-brown sugar into a large bowl
-Pour a couple of tablespoons of grape seed oil & stir.
-Pour a couple of tablespoons of almond oil & stir.
-Continued adding oil by the tablespoon until all the brown sugar was moist {sidenote: I hate the word moist}
- Sprinkle in a little pumpkin spice mix, stir, smell…
-Dump in a lot more of the pumpkin spice mix, like a lot, a lot, until it smells yummy enough to eat…. don't eat it… trust me.
-Grab 'em and give 'em